Life After Death/Issue 15
The group walked down the road, which turned into a small hill. When they reached the top of the hill, they looked on, shocked. Harter was abandoned. It was a small town with several torn, collapsed tents dotting the area. "No," Dolph said while walking around, shaking his head. "No, no, no...this can't be it. This isn't Harter! It can't be." "Dolph," Eric said, trying to calm him down. "No! I refuse to believe that this is it. It was supposed to be a safe haven...there has to be something...maybe there's another camp past it..." Dolph started running down the road and into the small town, while the rest of them chased after. Eric walked up to him, and put his hand on his shoulder. "Dolph, you have to face the facts...I'm just as pissed as you are, but-" "You're just as pissed as me? That's fucking bullshit, you don't know how I fucking feel. Was your sister heading to some safe haven that turned out to be a completely fucking abandoned piece of shit with no sign of life anywhere? No, so get the hell off my case." Everyone went silent. They were all standing in the middle of the road while Eric and Dolph stared each other down. "I'm...sorry," Eric said. "Uh, hello?" a voice said from behind them. "Who are you...and what do you want?" The group turned around and saw who the voice belonged to. He was a medium-height mexican man with balding black hair, 12 o'clock shadow, and glasses. He wore a dirty, brown business jacket over a brown and black striped shirt. He held out a knife while standing in a terrible fighting stance. "You really think you're going to hurt us with that?" Bill said in a weak voice. "Well-" "'Cause you're not." "I imagine you people came for Harter - the safe haven?" "Yeah, but this shit ain't a fucking haven," Andre said. "What the hell happened here?" "It's a long story. If you want to hear it, and don't intend to cause trouble, please, come inside. I'll tell you all what happened." The man lead the group deeper into the town. They reached an intersection, and he lead them to the right. There was a small firepit outside a convenience store. "This is it," the man said. "My home. My name is Walden by the way." The rest of the group introduced themselves. Walden noticed the bite in Bill's arm. "You've...been bit." "Yeah, I noticed," Bill shot back. "We need to amputate your arm." "How the fuck is that going to help?" "It prevents the virus from spreading. Once it reaches your brain...you turn." "Listen, buddy, I've had this bite in my arm for 12 fucking hours. There's no way cutting it off is going to do any good. I'd rather not spend my last moments on this planet with only one fucking arm." "Dad..." Brie said, saddened by what she had heard. "Please. There's a chance it will work, I don't want you to die. Do it for me, please." "Alright...fine. But let me hear the story first." "So, what happened here?" Drake asked. "Everyone, sit down, and I'll begin the story." ---- "Harter was turned into a safe-zone about two weeks after the apocalypse started. I was among the first members here, me and my brother. It was a small community, only about twenty people. But, we started sending out radio broadcasts to nearby stations, and they spread the word about us. We soon gathered more and more people, eventually rising to a busy forty-four. "We had a lot of supplies; tons of food, lots of water, a bunch of buildings and tents for shelter. We had everything we needed to survive...except guns. That was our weak point. Only six people had firearms, and they were all handguns. We were defenseless to other groups attacking, defenseless to the biters... After about a month and a half is when it happened...we were swarmed. A large hoard of the biters swept through here. Me and a friend of mine were out scavenging at the time, so we missed it. When we came back...everyone was dead. I found my brother...roaming around. I had to put him down...I was broken...God damn, it's only been a couple of weeks...felt like it's been a lifetime." "What happened to your friend?" Emily asked. "He lost his wife, kid, and mom in the attack. He went crazy...ended up killing himself. It was sad, we were close, but in the end, not close enough to save his life. And god knows I tried..." "I'm sorry for your loss," Gregory said. "My condolences." "It's fine, really. I haven't gotten over it yet, but I will. I'm not going to let myself lose to those things. So, where do you lot come from?" "We're from all over the place, really," Eric said. "Most of us met up about a month back, Devon and...his sister joined us a week ago, but she..." "What a shame. I'm sorry, son." "We ran into Morgan and Drake a couple days ago, they helped us break through Alvin's wall." "Alvin?" "You know, the guy in control of the wall surrounding Harter?" "I've never heard of him." "It's only about half a day's walk away, do you go that far?" "Not really, there was a store complex down the road a bit, but it's been looted to hell. That's where we were when...things happened." "Well...anyway. Alvin kind of...fucked us all up, if you couldn't already tell." "Yes, I noticed your limp. You know, I could probably help heal your wounds. I have some medical supplies in the store, let me go grab them." "Remember the chainsaw," Bill sarcastically added. "Oh, I won't forget. I'll just go grab it right now, just for you." Walden chortled at what he said, and walked inside the small, unlit convenience store. He walked out after several minutes, carrying numerous small bottles and a hatchet. "You're gonna hack it off with that?" Bill asked with a worried tone. "That's the best I have," Walden replied as he set the bottles down on the ground. "What happened to the chainsaw?" Devon asked in a light hearted manner. "I can go grab that if you'd like." "No...hatchet is fine..." Bill responded. "Just...fix them up first." "Are you sure? This could be the difference between life and-" "Just do it." "Alright...who's first?" "Gregory should go first, his is probably the easiest," Morgan said. Gregory walked over to Walden, pulled his coat off, and revealed the gun shot. "Turn around, please." Gregory turned around, and Walden saw the exit wound. "Good, it doesn't seem like the bullet broke up. Lay on the ground and I'll clean the wound." Gregory lied down and pulled his sleeve up. Walden opened the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and poured a small amount into it. Gregory winced as his wound started to bubble. "That's good, it's fighting off the infection," Walden said. He grabbed a role of bandage and wrapped it around Gregory's shoulder. He tore the piece off and tied it. "That should be good. It will take a while to heal, but it should be fine. Next?" Gregory got up and Morgan walked over. She removed the piece of Brie's scarf, and showed Walden her wound. "This looks simple." He felt around her hand and lower arm. "Doesn't seem like anything is too broken, just a small fracture. That will heal on it's own in due time as long as you don't use the wrist too much. Now, just keep your arm steady..." He poured a bit of hydrogen peroxide in her wound, and it bubbled, as well. She clenched her fist to try to deal with the pain. Walden bandaged her arm up, and sent her back. "Next?" Eric walked up to Walden, and pulled up his right pant leg, revealing the wound on the side of his leg. "Not too serious," Walden said. "You should be thankful that the bullet just grazed your leg. If it had hit the bone...it probably would have shattered. Now that would have been a mess. Here, prop your leg up on my knee." Walden bent his knee as Eric lifted his leg. He poured a tiny bit of the hydrogen peroxide in, and watched it bubble like the other two. Eric, unlike the others, chose to hide his pain. He gestured for Walden to bandage it, which he did. Eric then pulled his pant leg down and walked back. "Now, any others?" "I don't have a gunshot," Devon said. "But...my fingers are broken." Devon walked up and held his hand out. "My, my, this is quite a doozy," Walden said. "I'm going to bend them back into place, so try to keep from jerking around. If it hurts, grab my other hand and squeeze it. Okay?" "Yeah." Devon closed his eyes as Walden placed his hand around his fingers. "Three...two...one." When Walden hit one, he quickly bent Devon's fingers back into place with a single motion. "That wasn't too bad, was it?" Devon, who had been clenching Walden's hand, let go. Walden walked into the convenience store, and walked back out with a small piece of wood. He took Devon's hand, placed the wood on the back side of his fingers, and wrapped a bandage around it. "This should heal in a couple of weeks, just don't use your hand for anything. You got it?" "Got it," Devon said as he returned to the firepit. He sat down as Walden approached Bill. "Well, it seems that's everyone. Now, are you ready to have your arm amputated?" "No, but I don't have much choice, do I?" Bill asked as he looked back at Brie. Walden pulled a small table around from the side of the convenience store and placed it beside Bill. Bill sat down and put his arm on it as Walden readied his hatchet. "You sure you want to do this?" Walden asked one last time. "I'm sure." Bill said as Brie walked beside him and held his other hand. "I'm sure." Credits * * * * * * * * * * Deaths *None Trivia *First appearance of .